The Gloire, first ocean-going ironclad warship |
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| Career (France) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Gloire |
| Namesake: | Glory |
| Builder: | Toulon, France |
| Laid down: | April 1858 |
| Launched: | 24 November 1859 |
| Commissioned: | August 1860 |
| Decommissioned: | 1879 |
| Fate: | Scrapped in 1883 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | armoured frigate |
| Displacement: | 5,630 tonnes |
| Length: | 77.8 m (255 ft) |
| Beam: | 17 m (55.8 ft) |
| Draught: | 8.4 m (27.6 ft) |
| Propulsion: | Sail (1100 m²) single shaft HRCR (horizontal return), 2,500 hp (1.9MW) steam engine, 8 oval boilers |
| Speed: | 13 knots |
| Endurance: | 665 tonnes (733 tons) of coal |
| Complement: | 570 men |
| Armament: |
36 × 163 mm rifled muzzle-loaders model (1858/60) 6 × 193 mm BL model 1866 |
| Armour: | 110 to 119 mm (4.7–4.7 in) iron plates |
The French Navy's La Gloire ("Glory") was the first ocean-going ironclad battleship in history.
She was developed following the Crimean War, in response to new developments in naval gun technology, especially the Paixhans guns and rifled guns, which used explosive shells with increased destructive power against wooden ships, and followed the development of the ironclad floating batteries built by the British and French for the bombardment of Russian forts during the Crimean War. She was designed by the French naval architect Dupuy de Lôme, and was launched at the arsenal of Mourillon, Toulon, on 24 November 1859. Two sister-ships were built.
A 5,630-ton broadside battleship cut down by one deck in order to save weight, she used massive iron plates sheathed over a wooden hull structure. Her 12 cm-thick (4.7 in) protection plates, backed with 43 cm (17 in) of timber, resisted the experimental firing of the strongest guns of the time (the French 50-pounder and the British 68-pounder) at full charge, at a distance of 20 metres (65 ft). Her official top speed was 13.1 knots but other reports suggested no more than 11.75 knots had been reached and that 11 knots was the practical maximum.[1]
As was common for the era, La Gloire was constructed with sails as well as a steam-powered screw. The original riggings were a light barquentine rig providing 1,096 sq. m (11,800 sq. ft) of surface area. This was later increased to a full rig providing 2,508 sq. m (27,000 sq. ft) of surface.[2]
Despite these qualities, the ship proved quite hard on the crew as any opening had been forbidden, in order to avoid piercing the protection plate: ventilation was poor, and oil lamps had to be used for light.
La Gloire initiated the obsolescence of traditional unarmoured wooden ships-of-the-line, and all major navies had no choice but to build ironclads of their own. The word had it that Gloire fighting against conventional ships of the time would be comparable to "a wolf wreaking havoc amongst sheep." However La Gloire was soon herself rendered obsolete by the launching in 1860 of the British HMS Warrior, the world's first iron hulled warship. La Gloire was near Cherbourg during the historic American Civil War defeat of the Confederate commerce raider CSS Alabama by the USS Kearsarge on 19 June 1864 off the same harbour.
In 1879, La Gloire was delisted from the French fleet registry and scrapped in 1883. Her sister ships had been scrapped years earlier because of their poor construction.
La Gloire had two sister ships:
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